1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telemedical stethoscope that determines a disease name and stores auscultation data. Also, the present invention causes a patient to transmit/receive auscultation data to/from a doctor in a medical center to receive a telemedicine service and transmits the auscultation data to a health management program to be helpfully used for a personal health management and a disease prognosis determination.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic diagnosis devices are equipped in a modern general hospital and helps for a diagnostic workup.
However, when a doctor diagnoses a patient before the doctor uses such electronic diagnosis devices, the doctor carefully listens to a patient medical history to primarily diagnose a disease through an anthroposcopy, a manipulation, a percussion, an auscultation through a stethoscope or a hematomanometer.
Then, the doctor weighs a relative seriousness of a disease through a synthesized overhaul to definitely diagnose the disease and cure the disease.
Recently, the doctor prefers auscultation through an electronic stethoscope rather than that through a doctor's gut feeling in the primary diagnose for the patient.
The prior arts for an electronic stethoscope may include Japanese Utility model Registration No. 64-50805, for example. An electronic stethoscope includes a device recording a sound as a graph, a microphone detecting a sound and an earphone being worn in an ear. The electronic stethoscope electronically converts an auscultation sound to cause only a doctor to listen to the auscultation sound.
Also, an electronic stethoscope with a timing sound in U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,605 includes an electronic circuit that amplifies a frequency of an auscultation sound to display the auscultation sound as a visual graph.
Also, an electronic stethoscope with a hematocele indicator in U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,813 visually displays a hematocele and a respiratory sound for an expert doctor
Also, an electronic stethoscope in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,417 includes an electronic circuit that amplifies a frequency of an auscultation sound to the auscultation sound with an earphone for a medical check-up.
Also, an electronic stethoscope in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,302 includes a microphone, an electronic amplification circuit and a power supply in a sound collecting plate to listen to an auscultation sound alone through a mini speaker and through a sound tube worn in both ears.
The electronic stethoscope disclosed in the above prior arts amplifies an auscultation sound to be heard alone and the auscultation sound may not be heard by many people.
The applicant developed an electronic stethoscope for hearing an auscultation sound by many people to register a Patent and Utility model.
For example, Korean Utility model Registration No. 0131518 (Dec. 15, 1998) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,429 discloses a portable watch-type stethoscope having a simple configuration without a rubber sound tube and earing and having an electronic amplification circuit, speaker and a display in inner of stethoscope case configured with two small and large sound collecting plates collecting a sound to amplify the auscultation sound to be audibly heard and to display a wave of an auscultation frequency as a graph in the display to be watched by many people.
Also, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0387201 (Jun. 12, 2003) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,924 discloses an automatic determination storing diagnosis device that filters a noise external of a body from an auscultation sound detected in an auscultation microphone to convert the filtered analog wave data into digital data through an A/D converter, compares the digital data with standard auscultation sound data for various kinds of diseases to determine a disease name, stores the disease name in a storing device and displays the disease name through a plurality of monitors.
Also, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/885,108, which is a national stage application of International Application No. PCT/KR2005/003800, filed Nov. 10, 2005, published as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0146276, on Jun. 19, 2008, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,200,277, on Jun. 12, 2012, discloses a mobile phone with a stethoscope transmitting and receiving auscultation data auscultated thereby through transmitting and receiving function of the mobile phone to a remote location to receive a telemedicine service.
An automatic determination storing diagnosis device in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0287201 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,924 related with the present invention has advantageous effects that automatically determines and stores a disease name from an auscultation sound and secures objectivity for the disease name.
Also, a portable watch-type stethoscope in Korean Utility model Registration No. 0131518 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,429 embeds a microphone in a sound collecting tube of a sound collecting plate to convert an auscultation sound in an inner body into an electrical signal and to cause a doctor to listen to and watch a body sound with a speaker and display.
Also, a mobile phone with a stethoscope in Korean Utility model Registration No. 0389343 and PCT Patent Application No. PCT/KR2005/003800 has advantageous effects that transmits and receives auscultation auscultated thereby through transceiver function in the mobile phone to a remote location to receive a telemedicine service.
However, a conventional stethoscope in the above does not designate an auscultation object, an auscultation region and an auscultation order and does not easily distinguish what object in a region of a body auscultation data received through a microphone of a sound collecting plate is. Also, because a conventional stethoscope filters only noise external of a body and the filtered data includes heart pulsation sound, a lung respiratory sound, a blood flow sound of a cervical carotid artery and a bowel movement sound, there is more comparison and more determination error in case where the conventional stethoscope compares standard data for various kinds of diseases with the filtered data and an accuracy of the determination is lower.